[Peace] Add you name to CCHCC's petition to protect IL Cares Rx & Medicaid!

Fri May 18 00:13:47 UTC 2012

Dear Friends,

Please add your name to Champaign County Health Care Consumers’ (CCHCC) 
petition to protect Illinois Cares Rx and Medicaid from devastating cuts 
by Gov. Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly. If our legislators pass 
a budget that eliminates IL Cares Rx and drastically cuts Medicaid, 
these programs could be impacted as soon as this summer!

Last month, we told you about Gov. Quinn’s proposal to cut $2.7 billion 
from the Medicaid program, which amounts to an 18% cut to the $14 
billion state Medicaid budget and includes the total elimination of the 
IL Cares Rx program. Over 23% of Illinois residents depend on Medicaid 
for access to medical, dental, home health and other health care 
services. Illinois Cares Rx is an essential program helping thousands of 
low-income seniors pay for their prescription drugs. We have to stand up 
and say “NO MORE CUTS!”

Please see the TAKE ACTION section immediately below for a link to 
CCHCC’s online petition and how else you can take action to protect 
these vital social programs for Illinois’ low-income seniors, families, 
and people with disabilities. Further down is a background on the 
proposed cuts to IL Cares Rx and Medicaid, if you would like to learn more.

* * * * * * * * * *

TAKE ACTION!

1. Add your name to CCHCC’s Petition to Protect Illinois Cares Rx and 
Medicaid. The signatures will be delivered to Gov. Quinn and the 
Illinois General Assembly later this month.

http://signon.org/sign/illinois-united-to-protect

2. Call Illinois House leaders to voice your opposition to cuts to IL 
Cares Rx and Medicaid.

The IL Human Services Appropriations Committees of both the House and 
Senate are currently drafting their budget proposals for Fiscal Year 
2013 (which begins on July 1, 2012). They will then have to reconcile 
the two bills to create one final budget proposal, which could come up 
for a vote by the full House and Senate by the end of the month. When 
CCHCC and members of our Medicare Task Force recently met with Rep. 
Naomi Jakobsson and Sen. Mike Frerichs, they told us that the House of 
Representatives is largely leading the budget debate because they are 
the most determined to make big cuts.

Please join us in calling on House Speaker Madigan and the leaders of 
the House Human Services Appropriations Committee to protect IL Cares Rx 
and Medicaid!

Speaker of the House
Rep. Mike Madigan - (217) 782-5350

Appropriations - Human Services Committee (Chairperson)
Rep. Sara Feigenholtz - (217) 782-8062

Appropriations - Human Services Committee (Republican Spokesperson)
Rep. Rosemary Mulligan - (217) 782-8007

Appropriations - Human Services Committee (Member)
Rep. Chad Hayes - (217) 782-4811

Sample calling script:

“Hello. My name is ________ and I am from ___(city), Illinois___. I want 
to ask the Representative to protect IL Cares Rx from elimination and 
prevent any cuts to Medicaid. Our state budget should not be balanced on 
the backs of low-income children, seniors, and people with disabilities. 
Thank you.”

If you count on IL Cares Rx to make your prescription drugs affordable, 
let them know how losing that benefit would hurt you. If you use 
Medicaid to help pay for your medical, home health, dental, or other 
health care needs, let them know how cutting that program would limit 
your ability to maintain your health and independence.

If you live in Rep. Chad Hays’s District 104, which includes Rantoul, 
Danville, and most of Champaign and Vermillion Counties, outside of 
Champaign-Urbana, please contact him since he is a member of this 
committee.

* * * * * * * * * *

BACKGROUND:

Illinois Cares Rx is a state program that helps over 160,000 low-income 
seniors and people with disabilities with the costs of the prescription 
medications since 2005. The Illinois Medicaid program provides medical, 
dental, hospice, and home health care benefits to low-income children, 
families, seniors, and people with disabilities.

In February, Gov. Quinn and the IL Department of Human Services released 
their state budget proposals, which included over $2.7 billion in cuts 
to Medicaid and other social services, including the elimination of IL 
Cares Rx and deep cuts to programs like All Kids and Family Care. In 
April, Gov. Quinn and a bipartisan Medicaid committee reaffirmed their 
proposal that 18% of Medicaid should be cut, including the elimination 
of IL Cares Rx

Several House and Senate Appropriations Committees are currently working 
to reconcile their bills to create one final budget proposal. The final 
budget proposals will go for a full vote in both the House and Senate 
and finally sent to the Governor for his signature. All of this is 
slated to happen before the end of May, so our window for input is 
closing quickly. While there will surely be some difficult cuts in 
whatever budget proposal is passed, slashing Medicaid or eliminating IL 
Cares Rx would be devastating and end up costing the state more in the 
long-term with increased hospital and nursing home admissions if seniors 
can no longer afford their health care.

CCHCC and advocates from around the state fought successfully to save 
Circuit Breaker and Illinois Cares Rx from elimination last year, and it 
appears we will have to repeat our efforts again this year. Cutting or 
eliminating multiple state programs amounts to a threat to the health 
and well being of everyone in our community.

Eliminating the Illinois Cares Rx program would make prescription drugs 
unaffordable for Illinois’ seniors and people with disabilities, forcing 
individuals to skip or drop medications, putting them at risk for 
serious health crises and passing the cost onto hospitals or nursing homes.

Cutting 18% of the state’s Medicaid budget would shift costs to local 
health care systems and Illinois consumers by increasing emergency room 
usage as people get sicker, cutting off access to home health care, 
dental, and prescription drug benefits, and reducing access to providers 
who will no longer accept Medicaid at a lower reimbursement rate. The 
proposed cuts to Medicaid would also cost the state an estimated 25,000 
jobs and $3.3 billion in lost business activity. These cuts are not 
eliminating waste or “fat” from the state budget, they are cutting into 
the “meat and bone” of social programs. This is simply penny-wise and 
pound-foolish.

Join us in urging Gov. Quinn and the Illinois General Assembly to 
oppose, reject, and vote against any budget proposals that would balance 
the state budget on the backs of Illinois’ poor, seniors, and people 
with disabilities by eliminating Illinois Cares Rx or cutting Medicaid.

Please add your name to our petition and help us Protect IL Cares Rx and 
Medicaid.

http://signon.org/sign/illinois-united-to-protect

Sincerely,

Champaign County Health Care Consumers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Champaign County Health Care Consumers
44 E. Main Street  Suite 208
Champaign, IL 61820

Phone: (217) 352-6533
Fax:   (217) 352-9745
E-mail:cchcc at healthcareconsumers.org
Web:www.healthcareconsumers.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- 
Jen Tayabji
Executive Director
Illinois Disciples Foundation (IDF)
(c) 217.840.8248
http://www.ildisciplesfoundation.org

"If we remember those times and places--and there are so many--where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."

   - Howard Zinn